Ibn Taymiyya and the Attributes of God

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-49989-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 125, 390 Seiten, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 658 g

Reihe: Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies

In Ibn Taymiyya and the Attributes of God (orig. published in German, 2019), Farid Suleiman pieces together, on the basis of statements scattered unsystematically over numerous individual treatises, an overall picture of the methodological foundations of Ibn Taymiyya’s doctrine of the divine attributes. He then examines how Ibn Taymiyya applies these foundational principles as exemplified in his treatment of selected divine attributes. Throughout the book, Suleiman relates Ibn Taymiyya’s positions to the larger context of Islamic intellectual history.

The book was awarded the Dissertation Prize 2019 by the Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG) and the Classical Islamic Book Prize by Gorgias Press (2020).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Suleiman, Farid

Weitere Mitwirkende

El-Tobgui, Carl Sharif

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Philosophie & Wissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Nicht-Westliche Philosophie Islamische & Arabische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements (to the English translation)

Acknowledgements (of the original German version)

List of Figures and Tables

1 Introduction

1 State of the Field

2 Objectives and Approach

3 Overview of the Works of Ibn Taymiyya Most Frequently Used in This Study

Part 1 Ibn Taymiyya’s Biography and the History of the Divine Attributes in Islamic Thought before His Time

2 Ibn Taymiyya’s Biography

3 The Divine Attributes in Islamic Intellectual History up to the Time of Ibn Taymiyya

1 The Emergence of the Debate over the Divine Attributes in Early Islam

2 The Mu?tazila

3 The Falasifa

4 Ahl al-?adith

5 The Ash?aris

Part 2 The Methodological Foundations of Ibn Taymiyya’s Doctrine of the Divine Attributes

4 Ontological Foundations

1 The Term wujud: Meaning and Gradations

2 Likeness (mithl, tamathul) and Similarity (shibh, tashabuh, ishtibah) among Existent Things

3 Ibn Taymiyya’s Ontological Conceptualism

4 Ibn Taymiyya’s Critique of the Doctrine of the Unity of Being (wa?dat al-wujud) in Speculative Sufism

5 Linguistic Foundations

1 The ?aqiqa–majaz Dichotomy

2 On the Semantic Relationship of Homonymous Expressions: Ibn Taymiyya’s Linguistic Counterproposal to the ?aqiqa–majaz Dichotomy

3 What Are the Theological Consequences of Ibn Taymiyya’s Alternative to the ?aqiqa–majaz Dichotomy?

6 Hermeneutical Foundations

1 Verse Q. 3:7—Ibn Taymiyya’s Understanding of the Terms mu?kam, mutashabih, and ta?wil

2 Ibn Taymiyya’s Challenge to the Validity of Ta?wil Majazi: Attempting to Limit the Scope of Application of the Universal Rule (al-qanun al-kulli)

3 The Two Principles and the Seven Basic Rules for Interpreting the Divine Attributes

7 Epistemological Foundations

1 On the Applicability of Qiyas in Theology

2 The Epistemic Value of Textual Indicants: Ibn Taymiyya in Debate with al-Razi

8 Summary

Part 3 The Divine Essence and Attributes in Focus

9 Temporally Originating States and Acts (?awadith) in the Divine Essence

10 Case Studies of Selected Divine Attributes

1 al-?Adl: God’s Justice

2 al-Kalam: God’s Speech

3 al-Istiwa?: God’s Rising over His Throne

4 al-Ma?iyya: God’s “Withness”

11 Summary

12 Evaluation and Conclusion

Bibliography

Index of People and Subjects

Index of Quranic Verses

Über Autor(innen)

Farid Suleiman, PhD (2018), is Lecturer in Islamic Theology at Greifswald University. His current research takes the insights on language gained from Ludwig Wittgenstein as a departure point for shedding new lights on the character and development of Islamic intellectual history.